Embarking on autumn tasks

Why are some societies more modern, civilised and functioning than others? 

There can be many answers to this question but all societies are undoubtedly subject to and formed by the geographic and agroecological conditions of the area. Arable land, favourable climatic conditions and access to natural resources such as water and minerals will all other things being equal provide a stronger foundation on which to build a civilisation than poor food production conditions and a paucity of natural resources. 

One's thoughts can thus be set in motion in the course of a summer holiday when that holiday includes reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Jared Diamond, ”Guns, Germs and Steel”. The book runs through 13,000 years of societal development and tries to explain why some present societies are rich and modern while others are poor and undeveloped.  

The world's various civilisations throughout history have been formed by the conditions they have been subject to. How well societies succeed and, ultimately, survive, depends to a great extent on how they manage the conditions they are given, including the agroecological conditions. This is precisely what we carry out research in.  

How do we produce food in an efficient and productive manner that does not degrade the soil, the water and rest of the environment? How do we adapt to climate change? How do we deal with our vulnerabilities? These are issues that AGRO works with on a scientifically high level. 

We do not work in a vacuum. We must not only consider physical factors. We must also supply knowledge and answers in a political context. Fortunately, AGRO's staff are good at that. However, we must always keep in mind that when we provide an answer in an area that has many political interests, then there is a risk that one or the other chooses to read the answer the same way the Devil reads the Bible.  

Work environment, degree programmes, PhD students, and budget

Now that we are on the other side of the summer holiday we must pick up where we left off at work. One of the tasks is to have  closer look at the results of the psychological work environment evaluation. The results for AGRO were generally good, but we still face some challenges. We have measured the temperature; now we must delve deeper into the individual areas. These are mainly recognition, stress and work load. We will now zoom in and find out precisely where the problems lie and solve them on an individual level. 

One of the tools we can use to create and ensure a good work environment is a good staff development dialogue (SDD). New SDD forms have been developed for this purpose, where the employee is asked some questions prior to the dialogue. This preparatory questionnaire will help the employee and boss to have an even better SDD. We plan to begin the round of SDDs in the beginning of October. 

The former chairman of the education committee Michael Kristensen is temporarily on part time and has been replaced as chairman by Bernd Wollenweber. I am grateful to Bernd that he could take over this task with just a few days warning because quite a few tasks lie ahead. One of the big ones is the conversion to a semester structure. 

There are presently 104 Bachelor and 150 Master students on the food and agricultural programmes (including double degree students), which is very satisfactory. We must do all we can to keep them on the programme and hope that they find good jobs when they graduate.  

We have also had many good applicants to our PhD positions. Unfortunately, many of them dropped us. This means that we so far have only four new PhD students this year. The next application round is in November, but we will not suffice with that.  

In order to strengthen our efforts to recruit PhD students we are changing our policy so that from now on we will advertise PhD positions when we need someone - independent of whether or not they are connected to a certain research project. This would typically be within the area of policy advice.  

The Danish universities must save money. This is, of course, also the case for Science and Technology, where some departments will have to let employees go. Fortunately, there are no plans for redundancies in AGRO. We have plenty of work to do with regard to policy support and our staff are good at bringing home research funds. However, we must still tighten our belts so that we fulfill the new budget requirements. We will discuss possible areas in which we can save money in LSU/Department Forum this autumn.